Dark

Selection of background colour for web view

If you select a dark background, the National Audit Office page will be displayed in dark tones and you won’t have to choose a colour again the next time you visit – your choice will be remembered. You can change the background colour of the page later on in the header.

Light

Selection of background colour for web view

If you select a light background, the National Audit Office page will be displayed in light tones and you won’t have to choose a colour again the next time you visit – your choice will be remembered. You can change the background colour of the page later on in the header.

State supervision over the payment of wage compensation should be strengthened

TALLINN, 26 November 2002 - The State Audit Office audited the payment of wage compensation to the employees of companies in bankruptcy and came to a conclusion that the state should pay more attention to the procedures implemented by the trustees in bankruptcy in course of making payments to the employees.

In course of the audit it became evident that in come cases the employees were paid more or less compensations that justified. The State Audit Office considers it necessary for the Minister of Finance (from next year on, the Minister of Social Affairs, as the area is going to within the competence of the respective Minister) to ask the trustees in bankruptcy to submit accounting documents which evidence the people’s right to the support and correct calculation of the amounts paid.

In some cases the trustees in bankruptcy made the employees the payments over a long period. There were some cases where no money was paid at all as it was not possible to find the employee; at the same time the Ministry of Finance had no idea how much money to be refunded to the state budget is available on the bank accounts of the trustees in bankruptcy. The State Audit Office has formed an opinion that the money should be transferred to the bank accounts of the employees to provide for the expedient utilization of such funds.

The interests of the state are also damaged due to the fact that no proper account is kept over the wage compensation system. Although the state acts as the creditor in the bankruptcy proceedings within the limits of the payment made, the compensation has not been recorded as a claim; there is also no idea what should be the amount of the said claim.

In 2001, the total amount of 21.4 million kroons was paid to the employees of companies in bankruptcy; compensations were paid to employees of 112 companies. Within the first three months of 2002, 3.8 million kroons were paid from the guarantee fund.

Audit forms a part of the State Audit Office’s operational risks audit program which is aimed at the investigation of the payment of state budget subsidies, that is, the amounts for which the state does not obtain goods or services in return.